7
My eyes flutter open and I look around the room, trying to figure out if I’m awake or still dreaming. I can feel Jacques next to me. Still naked, his skin is warm against mine. He inhales, and I can feel his chest rise and fall. He turns a page in a book and shifts his weight.
“Ace?” he asks softly.
“Yeah?”
“You’re breathing hard. Are you all right?”
I squeeze my eyes closed and wait a beat, making sure this isn’t a dream.
“I had a weird dream. Well, I think it was a dream.” I roll over and Jac puts his book down.
“What happened?”
I sit up, holding the blankets around myself. Not because I’m shy to sit here naked, but because I’m suddenly cold.
“I saw Braeya again.”
Jac pushes himself up on the mattress, moving the pillows behind us. He pulls me into his embrace and I feel better almost right away. “Did she talk to you?”
“Yes. She said when the spell reaches its thousandth year, you will turn to stone forever.”
Jacques falls silent for a moment as he considers it. “I suppose that could happen.”
I push away, looking at him with wide eyes. “You suppose?”
“Yes. A thousand years is a very long time. Many spells have constraints.”
“Why are you so calm?” I scramble to get out of bed, set on going right to my book, the internet, and the library, and doing every single fucking thing I can think of to break this curse.
“Ace,” Jac starts, grabbing my arm. “Come back to bed.”
“Why? So I can relish in what might be our last time?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Even if I do turn to stone forever on the thousandth year of the curse, it’s weeks away. This won’t be our last time.”
My chest tightens and tears prick the corners of my eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t.” He folds his arms around me. “I promise you, you won’t lose me.”
He kisses me, lips crashing against mine in a fury. We fall back onto the mattress, and Jacques moves over top of me. He brushes my hair back and kisses me again.
“Everything is going to be fine.”
I swallow hard. “You’re a terrible liar, you know.”
He smiles weakly. “I know.”
The distant sound of a car echoes through the room, and Jacques sits up and looks outside. “They’re back with the pizza. We should go downstairs.”
“Right.”
“Ace,” he starts, holding me close once more before we get out of bed. “Let’s keep this between us. Just for now.”
I nod, clenching my jaw shut. The only reason he’d ask me not to bring it up is because he knows it’s true.
I only have a few weeks to break this curse before the guys are gone forever.
